I haven't seen any others, but Chicago was honest in saying that jersey sales are one of their only sources of revenue right now, so they might as well.
SkyBlue FC posted a few weeks ago that due to an increase in online sales all orders will take a minimum two weeks delivery.
Posting this here because its possible that the NWSL follows the MLS's lead here: From what I've been hearing, for both #MLS and #NWSL players, whenever training does resume, it'll be in small groups of three players or less, and groups will gradually be increased as allowed by state orders.— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) May 1, 2020 (And just to be clear, MLS is allowing four players separated by quadrants on a field, but they can't pass the ball or interact. When that's finally allowed, I've been told it'll start with small groups before scaling up. But nothing set in stone.)— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) May 1, 2020 EDIT to add: Its also been reported that NWSL and MLS players are being encouraged to start returning to market (although likely on a case-by-case basis, at this point).
We have protocols for returning to training, starting with voluntary, individual player workouts with access to the field. Full team training moratorium in place until at least May 15: NWSL issues its first return to training guidelines. Some pretty strict protocols in place here. pic.twitter.com/LzK3IRAfL4— John D. Halloran (@JohnDHalloran) May 4, 2020
And they're working on the schedule, I'm guessing with the announced, hopeful end of June start and then ending on the same weekend as scheduled: "The NWSL wants to finish the league at the same time as they would have done normally, so they are not planning to extend it and that may well mean mid-week games. We may end up playing twice a week, perhaps every week." f/Dash head coach James Clarkson's media availability.— John D. Halloran (@JohnDHalloran) May 4, 2020
I wouldn't be surprised if men's-backed NWSL teams don't need jersey revenue like independent NWSL teams do, so the desire to push that revenue stream might not be as strong. Still, would be smart of organizations to do so anyway; more revenue can never hurt.
Do you know if they are planning on 'closed door' games? The State of Washington protocols released on Friday by Gov Inslee don't allow stadium activities until mid August at the earliest and it could be significantly later.
That does not match the Thorns, who make a lot of money on kits and gear. They just time their releases according to what they (rather than BS posters) think is best.
There was a Steven Goff-written article in the Washington Post last week (no link, I've exceeded my allotment of free articles for the month) which stated that one of the ideas being floated for the NWSL season would involve all nine teams relocating to the DC area, and all games would then be played there, in one central location. Personally, I'd file this idea under the "grasping at straws" category...but hey, you never know.
This is based on one of the ideas for an MLB season (playing all games in Arizona), but for women's soccer, I think this would be under the idea of "floated around by media/fans." Ownership is not going to be a fan of spending even more than usual to have games outside of their market with little revenue. NWSL just isn't there yet. I'm pretty sure the original article with the proposed end-of-June date (article up somewhere in this thread) had closed-door games. And like this says: all state regulations will be followed, which if end-of-June does happen, may mean playing games at the beginning in markets where its allowed. I'm sure that's part of the difficulty in trying to rework this season's schedule.
Well, other than the fact that I've never known Goff to phrase things the way he did and the idea not come from a league or team source. If Goff writes something, I believe it. Now that doesn't mean it was under serious consideration, but it didn't come from the fans or other media. I'm guessing, in all due diligence, that the league is considering all options and many permutations of the different options.
Depends on who "they" is. The teams drive almost all of their revenue from ticket sales and local sponsorships. The league's primary revenues are (educated guessing here) cash calls from the owners (primarily to cover player salaries), grants from USSF (to cover U.S. Federation Player salaries and league administration), and smaller amounts from CSA (Canadian Federation Players) and the few national sponsors (Nike, Thorne, Cutter, Budweiser) - though it's possible all of the Nike money is "payment in kind" for uniforms, balls, and other equipment, gear, and merchandise. I'm guessing there are no net positive revenues from TV/streaming, nor will there be for some number of years. There are generally three levels of sports broadcasts: 1) Time buy. Basically and infomercial for the league/sport where the league takes the broadcast window as a loss-leader for marketing purposes. They buy the time, produce the broadcast, and hope to make some money back by selling ads. 2) The same as #1, a time-buy, but with the network covering the production costs. 3) Break-even. The Network doesn't pay the league anything, but covers production costs and takes over broadcast ad sales. 4) Rights Fees. This is where leagues want to get. It took MLS about 10 years to get here, and it got there first with their Spanish language rights. I'm not sure I've ever seen a WUSA/WPS/NWSL game on the Univision or Telemundo families or ESPN Deportes. You do see individual teams get to #4 for local broadcasts before leagues do. The LA Galaxy and Chivas USA signed a very lucrative local LA deal in 2005. I suspect the Thorns might be at #4 for their local broadcasts, but I've not looked into it. As for streaming? That's mostly a marketing thing. Those are easy (but not as cheap as you would think) infomercials for the league. Frankly, the big priority for the NWSL (much as it was for the WUSA) is in signing national sponsorship deals. Right now, pretty much all of the NWSL league sponsors are hand-me-downs from U.S. Soccer. In 2003, the WUSA folded after desperately trying to sign up 6 key category national sponsors to go with the 2 they had from the first year (Maytag and Honda). I think they may have signed only 1 (Aflac) on the heels of 18 months of desperate work, and I'm not sure that Aflac was a full-fledged commitment.
I'm sure you're right. I found the link to the article (sorry for those that don't have a subscription), but the info alluded to is: "...one scenario being considered, a person familiar with the league said, is initially basing all nine teams in the D.C. area and using multiple venues for the start of the season." So, just an initial part of the season, possibly to get away from states that have more restrictions in place, which makes much more sense than an entire season that the OP mentioned. Additionally, higher up in the article, Elby is quoted as saying that no one knows for sure what will happen and that many scenarios have been discussed, which I think we'd all agree is what's necessary right now with such a fluid situation. Also for those who asked, the article does say that the possible start to the season is the weekend of June 27-28 with no fans. June 1 is the current targeted date for broader training sessions, beyond just individual and small group workouts. And if you do have a subscription, the article is worth a read as it talks about some of the issues in getting back to training/games as well as some of the specific restrictions in place in different markets.
What about internationals, by the way? I guess it is possible that some of them remained in USA all the time, but for those who didn't, international transports and airlines are supposed to be reliably back with no restrictions for the week-end when the league is supposed to start?
I'm going to guess some have stayed in market especially since many were already in camp before everything got shut down. But honestly, I don't know as some may have travelled back to be with family or other reasons, and I don't think anyone knows on when international travel will be reliably back up (and I really wish I did since my job requires a lot of international travel and I would be overseas right now if I could).
On a call with Utah Royals captain Amy Rodriguez. Her first training session will be this afternoon, but they're be in small groups keeping social distance, wearing masks and gloves. #URFC #NWSL— Lucas Muller (@lucaswmuller) May 8, 2020
Safety first, but we still got that work in. #SoccerIsBack pic.twitter.com/oPQnLuxjup— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) May 8, 2020
Add Portland to the list. Update: the Thorns will return to voluntary individual workouts at Providence Park today, and continue next week.DETAILS | https://t.co/LyW1ZUhehR | #BAONPDX— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) May 9, 2020
Just saw on my local news that MLS is seriously considering the idea of moving all MLS teams to Orlando to complete the entire season as closed-to-fans games at the Disney Sports Complex there. Certainly gives credence to the notion that NWSL could move all of its teams to DC for a single-city closed-door season.
Why DC? I have no problem with that, but I'm curious as to why DC has been chosen. I've been to the Maryland soccer complex where the Spirit play and the facilities are extensive, but probably other places have good infrastructure also.